Captain Falcon returns as a fully playable character, an playable character. His starter stage is known as "Mute city". Despite not appearing in a game since 2004, Captain Falcon has continued to be a beloved character in the Super Smash Bros. series. Being one of the Original 12 characters which have appeared in every game, Captain Falcon was confirmed for Super Smash Bros. for 3DS and Wii U on July 14, 2014. His moveset remains practically unchanged, but he has been shown to have been buffed since Brawl.

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Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Super Smash Bros. for Wii U (大乱闘スマッシュブラザーズ for Nintendo 3DS/Wii U,Dairantō Sumasshu Burazāzu fō Nintendō Surī Dī Esu / Wī Yū?) (Often referred by fans as Super Smash Bros. 4) is a Nintendo 3DS and Wii U game. It was developed by Namco Bandai Games Inc. and Sora, and was published by Nintendo. It is the fourth installment in the series.

Contents

Characters

The following 50 characters are playable in this game (52 if all three Mii Fighters are considered separate characters - making it the game with the most characters). Note, some unlockable characters in the 3DS version are starter characters in the Wii U version.

Amiibo

Amiibos are part of a new system introduced for Smash Bros. for WiiU and 3DS, that uses near field communication through special figurines of the respective characters, that can be bought separately. Through this, players bring the characters to the game as special CPU player, which can level up and be customized, learning more as they improve and interact with the player and other CPUs.

Stages

There are a total of 76 stages across both games; some are shared between versions (* indicates that the stage returns from a previous game) (**means that it is DLC). Some stages, such as Gaur Plains and Final Destination, are slightly different between the two versions. The Wii U version has 47 Stages, while the 3DS version has 34.

The Hocotate Bomb (similar to Olimar's Final Smash) and the POW Block (once a stage hazard) return as items.

Pokémon

In order to increase the rate of rare Pokémon appearing in battle, there are now two types of Poké Balls: the traditional red and white Poké Ball, which summons any Pokémon, and the Master Ball, which summons only rare and legendary Pokémon.

Also known as "VS Mode", it is the traditional 4-player battle that can be done with either players or CPUs. Additionally, the Wii U version has the exclusive 8-Player Smash, which allow, as the name suggests, up to 8 players to play simultaneously, however the range of maps is smaller, meaning not all stages can be played with 8 players.

Classic Mode

3DS version

In the new, modified version of Classic Mode, players choose different paths as they progress through a "world map" to fight against waiting CPU opponents.

Other than battling the usual fighters in one-on-one fights, there is also the possibility of fighting giant or metal fighters, team battles with CPU players both aiding and attacking the player, and matches where the player must defeat opponents one after another or in groups.

Players are able to alter their "Fighter Balance": a system where gold is spent to adjust the intensity level. The higher the intensity, the stronger opponents will be, and the greater a player's rewards will be when victorious. Among those rewards are gold, trophies and items for character customization.

Before the player starts a level, a roller appears and determines the player's rewards. Rewards in red are for customization, green ones are trophies, and yellow means gold.

Wii U version

In the Wii U version, the trophy of the player's character is put in an arena along with other characters' trophies. The player can move his trophy around the arena, and if it touches a group of trophies, it will be tossed into a battle with those characters (a faint image of the stage will be under the base of the trophies). After the fight, all the defeated characters' trophies will be launched out of the arena, and the remaining trophies will organize in new groups.

Along with normal and 8-player matches, intruders may appear randomly before matches, being either metal or giants characters. In team battles, instead of a random CPU companion, you choose your partner from the characters you defeated in previous battles. There is also a rival that can be challenged anytime; the longer you wait to battle him, more powerful will be, but it will also give more rewards when defeated.

The Fighter Balance and Reward Roller are kept from the 3DS version.

This is also the first Smash Bros. game where Classic Mode allows two-player mode.

Stadium Mode

The score for these games effect the player's Global Smash Power, by either increasing or decreasing it, making each time count.

In Multi-Man Smash the player fights against all three types of Miis, with randomly generated appearances. Like in Smash Bros. Brawl, it allows two-player mode.

Target Blast is played similarly to Home Run Contest, in a nod similar to Angry Birds. However, players will be presented to a giant bomb instead of the Sandbag, and must inflict it enough damage to create the biggest explosion possible by racking up points from obstacles and targets waiting to be destroyed. Much like in Home Run Contest, there is a 10 second timer, and after it expires the bomb will explode. Getting a good score depends on launching the bomb to areas rich with targets, getting the timing of the explosion just right, and using the explosive blocks found around the stage to maximum effect. It allows two player mode, however in form of a versus battle: each player get its turn to launch the bomb, rather than both players racking up damage against the bomb simultaneously. The player with most points wins.

Home-Run Contest now features a strong barrier in the arena, allowing players to rack up damage for longer time. Like in Smash Bros. Brawl, it allows two-player mode.

For Fun and For Glory

Online gameplay has been completely reworked, where players can choose between two new modes:

For Fun: stage select is random (Final Destination is excluded from this), all items available, Smash battles only (free for all up to 4 players), and only wins are recorded.

For Glory: stage select is restricted to Omega Stages (Final Destination-type variant of existing stages), no items available, 1-1 battles possible, and both wins and loses are recorded. Additionally, players can freely customize those rules when playing with friends.

Smash Run

An exclusive mode for the 3DS, where up to four players can compete in two separate instances: one where they collect power-ups in a large maze-like stage, and another one where they fight each other in a normal stage, using the power-ups each character has picked up to their advantage.

Smash Tour

An exclusive game mode for the Wii U, where up to four players can play a Mario Party style board game. Players can collect characters and power ups for a final fight, but it is possible to lose them through traps and secondary fights. There are three board sizes, and also different options for how many turns you take.

Special Orders

An exclusive mode to the Wii U, it consist in series of random challenges that give various rewards when completed; either custom parts, trophies or gold. The mode is presented by Master Hand and Crazy Hand, each with its unique way to play. To play Crazy Orders you either need to earn a ticket or pay a fee.

Master Orders

Every time you enter this mode, 3 random-created challenges of varying difficulty and entry fee (gold) to play will be presented to the player; every challenge with different battle rules, special powers for fighters and even psychics laws like altered gravity. Each challenge can only be tried once, winning allows you to get the secret reward, if you fail you get nothing. After playing a challenge, a new set of 3 will appear.

Crazy Orders

It costs 5000 gold or a free pass to play this mode (free passes are gained by playing various modes, such as Classic and Smash Tour). In Crazy Orders, you have a 10-minute time to complete various challenges, similar to the ones in Master Orders, and 3 are presented in each "round", with your damage percent carried over in each round. You can stop at any time during this, bringing you against a Stamina fight with Crazy Hand. The more rounds you played, more powerful Crazy Hand will be at the end and it can even be accompanied by CPU characters. You will only get your rewards after beating Crazy Hand, if at any time you lose a challenge or run out of time, Crazy Orders will end and you'll only recieve a small portion of your reward stash.

Changes from Brawl and New Features

Nintendo released a GameCube Controller Adapter that allows to connect up to four original GameCube controllers to play Smash Bros. A Wii U version of the GameCube controller was also released as a special edition, with a more aesthetic design.

This is the first Smash Bros. game that allows up to 8 players simultaneously in Versus Mode. Additionally, other modes also have 5 or more characters in battle, in form of CPUs.

The speed of the game is a balance between Brawl and Melee. This is to appeal to both casual and hardcore gamers after the lukewarm response by hardcore gamers to Brawl's more "floaty" mechanics.

Hitstun has been increased, allowing characters to pull true combos again, but not as effective as in Melee. The new mechanics now increases the amount of time characters have to act out of hitstun when being launched, which is identified by the trail of smoke they produce when receiving strong knockback. This means it is no longer possible to cancel hitstun with command input.

Directional Influence was originally different at the release of Smash Bros. for 3DS, where it was required to input a vector directly to the knockback's vector. This was dubbed "vectoring". However, in the patch Version 1.0.4 of the 3DS version, DI now functions like it was in the other games.

Characters with consecutive standard attacks, such as Fox's infinite kick, can now input a finishing move to end the combo, dealing knockback. Little Mac was the first character seen performing this, in his official reveal trailer.

Characters with wall cling, such as Lucario and Sheik, can use it for a near infinite amount of time consecutively; however each time they jump out and cling again, the time they can stay on the wall is cut by half. This timer is reset once the character lands on ground.

Meteor Smashes now causes opponents to ground-bounce characters if the player hits them in the air back on the stage, similar to using a Meteor Smash attack against ground opponents. Additionally, very few characters have attacks that always Meteor Smashes; many now have sourspots that still deal high knockback, but don't send opponents downwards. Some of the most notable characters affected by this are Samus, Ness and Ganondorf, known for having very reliable Down Aerials that always Meteored.

Random Tripping has been removed. Forced tripping, however, remains, since the banana peel item is still present, as well as the individual character attacks that can cause tripping.

Gliding has been removed. This means Charizard, Meta Knight and Pit no longer have an additional means of recovery.

Swimming has been removed in the 3DS version, but does return in the Wii U version.

Some attacks with wind effect (pushboxes) have increased pushing power depending on the opponents' current percentage.

Character transformations have been completely removed from the game; Zero Suit Samus and Sheik are now separate characters from Samus and Zelda, respectively. Charizard is also its own character, as opposed to previously being one of Pokemon Trainer's Pokemon.

Tether Recovery can now be done from an even longer range than before. In addition, multiple characters can latch on the ledge, but the one that actually grabs hold is determined by the same rules as the standard ledge grab.

To prevent the infamous edgehogging tactics and greatly expand the edge-game, a new mechanic has been introduced, where a character will be automatically "kicked" off of the edge if another character tries to grab it. This causes no damage and gives few invincibility frames to the kicked character.

Additionally, planking is no longer possible, meaning players can no longer release and grab the ledge repeatedly to gain invincibility frames; after releasing the ledge, the player can't re-grab for a couple of frames afterwards.

Also, sweetspotting the ledge is slightly more difficult than in Brawl, but not as much as in Melee; it is required the correct spacing in order to latch on, though. However, most Up Specials now have improved ledge-sweetspotting, preventing characters from dying when the recovery move pushes them below the platform slightly. Addtionally, it is still possible to grab the ledge backwards.

As shown in the April's 7th Smash Direct, the characters' Special Moves can be customized to give certain results, such as Pit's arrows performing a spin after being fired, Kirby freezing characters instead of swallowing them or Mario's Fireball being much larger but slower or smaller but faster.

During Play Nintendo - Super Smash Bros. Roundtable with Masahiro Sakurai, it has been further explained how that mechanic will function: each character have 2 variations of their original Special Attacks, totalizing 12 different Special Moves, 3 for each direction. However, to maintain the game's balance, these customizations will not be available for Online Mode "With Anyone", and can also be turned off in the game's options for other Modes.

A new ranking system has been introduced, called Global Smash Power. Differentiating from the traditional leaderboards seen in other games and seen by Sakurai as a more "fair" than the current leaderboard system seen in most online games.

Assist items (Assist Trophy, Pokeball, Master Ball) now only appear one at a time in the 3DS version. In the Wii U Version multiple can appear at a time.

When running out of a platform, characters do a smooth "hopping" that is followed by the normal falling animation.

Though originally there were plans to include a single player story mode, Sakurai has since changed his mind. There is no story mode in this installment of the game.

However, short movies featuring newcomer characters introductions, like the ones introducing Villager, Wii Fit Trainer, and Mega Man, will take the place of the originally planned story mode cutscenes. These scenes, however, are not present on 3DS.

When a character is selected, one of his/her eyes will emit a small shine.

The "impact-launch" effect has been altered to a colored light trail indicating which player will receive the point should a KO occur. Additionally, a red/black lightning effect will appear when a character is hit by a strong attack and/or has a high damage percentage, to indicate the character will likely be KO'd.

Whenever a character KO another, his/her frame will emit a small burst with the respective player color.

Characters that have at least 100% damage percentage will now emit a steam to visually announce they are at their limit. When reaching higher percentages, their frames will also faintly flash red.

Most regular attacks now have special graphical effects to give them a more "aggressive" feel, as if they are "cutting through air".

This was also added so players can see and identify attacks more easily, which holds true for the 3DS version, where the screen is smaller.

Some attacks have been adjusted to prevent a character's back from facing the screen. Additionally, the leg and arm positions of some characters are mirrored when facing left or right.

Almost all stages now have a "Final Destination version", which is a flat version of the respective stage, without any platforms or stage hazards. This is referred to as the stage's "Omega" version.

In Team Battle, it is now possible to choose any color for the characters, and their team affiliation will be marked by the respective color outlining them. This feature is available for both versions of the game.

The revival platforms now turns from yellow to red to warn the characters how much time they have before they fall.

In the 3DS version, you can now highlight yourself or other players. It is unknown if this will also be a feature in the Wii U version.

In the Wii U version, it's possible to play with up to 8 players rather than just 4. This is a special mode in the game.

The Stage Builder in this game lets you build your own land using the Gamepad Style, with far more options than the Brawl version, allowing much more fluid terrain as opposed of the "blocky" ones in Brawl. It also lets you make ledges grabable, create pass-through platforms, and draw hazardous areas. Other features include launching barrels similar to the Donkey Kong games, and moving platforms whose distance and trajectory can be set by the player. Background screens are now animated, and players are able to build much larger stages than in Brawl.

Advanced Techniques

While some advanced techniques listed as "glitches" have been fixed in Patch 1.0.4. The advanced techniques are as it follows:

Jump Cancel Throw: also possible in Brawl, this technique is still present in Smash Bros. 4. Most notable when used with Mega Man and his Metal Blades.

Table Flipping: Mr. Game & Watch Down Tilt has pushboxes that when used at the right timing can deflect projectiles. Most notable when used against Pac-Man's Lazy Fruits. It can also be used against opponents recovering.

Perfect Pivoting: considered the "wavedash of Smash 4", it allows players to slide along the ground by canceling the dash by inputing the opposite direction.

Reverse Aerial Rush: also known as TACing, this technique originated from Brawl, where players can attack with a Back Aerial while running forward.

Turnaround Cancel: also known as TACing, it is performed during the turning animation of a dash, where it is possible to cancel it into a Forward Tilt, similar to the Reverse Aerial Rush technique, but on ground.

Roll Cancel: it consists of canceling the Forward Dodge Roll into a Dash Grab. It works most notably with Little Mac, who has the fastest roll in the game.

The following techniques were avaliable at the launch of the 3DS version, but were fixed in patch Version 1.0.4, and the release of the Wii U version removed them entirely.

Dash Cancelled Up Smash: also known as DACUS, this technique originated from Brawl, where players could cancel their Dash Attack into an Up Smash.

Toss Canceling: it allows the characters Link, Toon Link and Peach to cancel their landing lag by tossing their special itens (Link and Toon Link's Bombs and Peach's Vegetables).

Wectoring: by using the vectoring mechanic, Wario had a bug that allowed players to change, redirect and manipulate his knockback, greatly improving his recovery.

Fixed bug where using Counter after being trumped from a ledge would change momentum.

Pac-Man:

Up Smash has increased ending lag.

Bonus Fruit's Galaxian Flagship nerfed in damage (11% to 9%).

Fire Hydrant now has 13 HP.

Mega Man:

Fixed a bug where Mega Man could cancel hitstun by using Rush Coil.

Fixed a bug where grabbing Mega Man after any Up Special would refresh it.

Leaf Shield has reduced ending lag.

Sonic:

Forward Smash has increased ending lag.

Fixed a bug where grabbing Sonic after any Up Special would refresh it.

Development

The game was first announced at E3 2011, but no further information was released due to Masahiro Sakurai working on finishing Kid Icarus: Uprising. At the start of 2012, the game was officially in production, but new information was not released until the following year.

On June 11th, 2013, two trailers were shown during a Nintendo Direct: one announcing the game and the Villager as a newcomer, and another announcing that Capcom's Mega Man would also be a new, playable character. One more trailer was released before the end of E3 2013 showing that Wii Fit Trainer would be playable for the first time.

Palutena and Mii Fighter were revealed on June 10, 2014, during Nintendo's E3 Digital Conference. Shortly after during the Super Smash Bros. Roundtable, Pac-Man was announced. Additionally, the Official Smash Bros. site received a major update, now having separate tabs with information for the Wii U and Nintendo 3DS versions, including new sections such as "How to Play", "Game Modes", and also details about the GameCube Controller Adapter for Wii U.

Lucina and Robin were announced July 11th, 2014 and revealed July 14th, 2014, on the Smash Bros Site.

Trailers

The first trailer for Super Smash Bros. 3DS/Wii U was revealed at E3 2013, showing off the game for the first time, as well as revealing the inclusion of the Villager as a newcomer, named "First Trailer".

Two more trailers were released later for the new characters Mega Man and Wii Fit Trainer, titled "Mega Man Joins the Battle!" and "Wii Fit Trainer Joins the Battle" respectively.

A trailer was released on October 1st, 2013 to announce Sonic the Hedgehog, titled "Sonic Joins the Battle!". The trailer, however, is not available on his page at the Official Smash Bros Site

A trailer for the announcement of Rosalina & Luma was shown in the December 18th, 2013 Nintendo Direct, titled "Comet Observatory."

A trailer for the announcement of Little Mac was shown on a Nintendo Direct, on February 14th, 2014, titled "Champion of the Ring".

A trailer for the announcement of Charizard and Greninja was also shown in the Super Smash Bros. Nintendo Direct on April 8th, 2014, titled "Challenger from the Shadows".

A trailer for the announcement of Palutena was revealed at E3 on June 10th, 2014 and later at the same day, a trailer revealing the announcement of Pac-Man was shown at the E3 Smash Bros. Roundtable. Palutena's was titled "Goddess of Light," and Pac-Man's was titled "Red, Blue Yellow."

A trailer for the announcement of Robin and Lucina and Captain Falcon's return was shown on July 14th, 2014 as a livestream, titled "By Book, Blade and Crest of Flame".

A trailer for the announcement of Shulk was shown on August 29th, 2014, titled "Looks like we don't have a choice!".

A trailer for the announcement of Bowser Jr. was revealed during the Nintendo Direct Super Smash Bros. for Wii U 50-Fact Extravaganza on October 23rd, 2014, it was titled "The Future King".

A trailer for the announcent of Duck Hunt was revealed during a Nintendo Direct on November 5th, 2014, it was titled "One Dog, One Bird, One Zapper".

Bundles

Wii U

3DS

On August 13, 2014 Nintendo of Europe announced a Super Smash Bros. 3DS XL Limited Edition pack that come in red or blue and have the Smash Bros. 3DS Boxart in white on the front. It comes with the Smash Bros 3DS XL, Super Smash Bros. 3DS pre-installed, and for a limited time, comes with a Super Smash Bros. T-Shirt. It was released October 3rd. On September 6th, Nintendo confirmed this bundle would be coming to the North America too.

Trivia

This game was announced at E3 2011 but development didn't start until after the release of Kid Icarus: Uprising in 2012 and no characters, stages or gameplay were shown until E3 2013, a full 2 years after the first announcement.

This is the first Smash Bros. to have online support through patching in order to balance characters and other mechanics.

This is the first game in the series to feature downloadable content (I.E. Mewtwo).

The 3DS and Wii U versions have different stages: the 3DS having stages primarily from handheld games, while the Wii U having stages mainly from console games.

The 3DS and Wii U versions will not have cross-platform play due to the use of different stages in each version. However players can transfer their Amiibos to both versions.

Sakurai stated that in the 3DS version, outlines are placed around the character so it can be easy to see them from far away. The thickness of the outlines can be increased, decreased or even removed.

In the 3DS version, stages only have two varying musical pieces, whereas in the Wii U version, the My Music function from Brawl will return.

The 3DS version was supposed to release in summer but it was delayed to October 3. This makes it the 2nd Smash game in a row to be delayed.

This is the first game in the series to keep entirely similar character models from a previous game (Brawl) with a texture retouch (for example Mario, Fox, Luigi, Sonic, Pikachu, Link, Donkey Kong, Peach, Zelda, Lucario etc.).

Notable exceptions include Marth, Ike, and Samus.

As shown in the E3 2013 with Masahiro Sakurai playing as Mega Man against another player playing as Mario in a SSB4 demo play, the victory animation for Mega Man (and therefore for every character) would've been the original one, but it was evidently changed as shown in the Super Smash Bros. Invitational when the match ended, this may be because the original one lacks the background characters clapping/cheering for you and the Results Screen.

This game has introduced more playable villain and female characters than any previous Smash game.

This is the first installment in the series since the original game to not receive a T ESRB rating, as both versions of the game appear to have a E10+ rating, according to the official site.

This is the first game in the series where Mario has a Waluigi palette.

This is the first game where Luigi, Lucario, Toon Link, Marth, Jigglypuff, Ganondorf, and Sonic are starter characters (as they were all unlockables in their previous appearances).

This is the first game where a veteran character who was a starter character in his first appearance becomes an unlockable player, being Wario.

This is the first game to push the Nintendo 3DS to its maximum power during use, disabling use of Miiverse while the game is running.

This is the first game in the series to feature a playable female villain, Wendy O. Koopa.

The Wii U version is the first Smash game where the entire cast of the original Super Smash Bros. are Starters.

The 3DS version is also the first Smash game to be released on a handheld.

--Captain Falcon's Appearances--
Captain Falcon returns as a fully playable character, an playable character. His starter stage is known as "Mute city". Despite not appearing in a game since 2004, Captain Falcon has continued to be a beloved character in the Super Smash Bros. series. Being one of the Original 12 characters which have appeared in every game, Captain Falcon was confirmed for Super Smash Bros. for 3DS and Wii U on July 14, 2014. His moveset remains practically unchanged, but he has been shown to have been buffed since Brawl.